Union Budget 2021 major takeaways from the speech.
The union budget of the year 2021-22 was presented by the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sithraman on Monday. The highlights of speech are divided into three sections of fiscal position and health expenditure, tax proposals and FDI with privatization and the major takeaways from the highlights are listed below:
Fiscal position and health expenditure:
1. The spending on healthcare is increased by 137 percent to over 2.23 lakh crore rupees.
2. An outlay of 35,000crore rupees for COVID vaccines in the fiscal beginning on 1st April
3. Sharp increase in capital outlay for next fiscal to 5.54 lakh crore rupees, up from 4.39 lakh crore of the previous fiscal.
4. The fiscal deficit for the current fiscal is at 9.5%, against 3.5% budgeted.
5. Fiscal deficit for the next fiscal pegged at 6.8%, and the government will borrow 12 lakh crore rupees.
6. By 2025-25 the government is committed to bring down the fiscal deficit below 4.5% of the GDP.
Various tax proposals:
1. For citizens above the age of 75 years the filing of Income tax returns will not be mandatory and the banks will only deduct TDS.
2. The outer time limit of the reopening of the I-T assessment cases will be halves to 3 years from 6 years.
3. In 2020 the filet of income tax returns have increased to 6.48 crore from 3.31 crore in 2014.
4. An agri infra cess of 2.5% on gold, silver and dore bars; 35 per capita (pc) on apples.
5. Agri infra cess of 30% on Kabuli chana, 10% on peas, 50 pc on Bengal gram/chickpeas, 20 pc on lentil(mosur) and 5 pc on cotton.
6. On petrol a 2.5 rupees of agri infra cess per liter is imposed and on diesel an amount of 4 rupees has been imposed.
7. From February 2 the new Agriculture Infrastructure Development Cess is to be applicable, but it is created in a way which will not impact final consumers.
8. The double taxation faced by the NRI will be removed by the Tax dept. and will notify.
9. Tax holidays for startups, capital gains exemptions extended by 1 year.
10. Exemption of tax for aircrafts leasing cos; exemption of tax for notified affordable housing for the migrant workers.
11. A tax deduction of 1.5 lakh crore rupees on payment of interest for affordable housing extended to by one year.
12. The exemption has doubled from the tax audit limit to 10 crore rupees turnover for companies doing most of the businesses through the digital mode.
13. It put forward a review of over 400 customs duty exemptions; and extensive consultation to begin from October 2021.
14. Raised customs duty on certain auto parts and solar equipment.
Privatization and FDI:
1. The insurance in FDI has increased to 74 percent to 49 percent with safeguards.
2. At 1.75 lakh crore rupees the disinvestment target is pegged, down from the previous year target of over 2 lakh crore rupees.
3. 2 more PSU banks and one insurance company to be privatized among others which are undergoing the disinvestment process like Air India.
4. The recapitalization of a PSU bank is pegged at 20,000 crore rupees in the next fiscal year.
5. With an outlay of 64,180 crore rupees the Atmanirbhar health programme will be introduced.
6. The proposal of the budget rests on 6 pillars: health and well-being, physical and financial capital and infrastructure, inclusive development for aspirational India, human capital, innovation and maximum governance.
7. A Bill to be introduced by the government to set up a development of financial institution with an outlay of 20,000 crore rupees.
8. To phase out old vehicles the policy of voluntary vehicle scrapping to be brought in and a fitness test for personal vehicles after 20 years will also be included in the policy
9. National monetization pipeline for the potential brown fields’ infrastructure assets.
10. The forthcoming Census which will be the first digital census, with an amount of 3,726 crore rupees is outlaid by the government.
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